On 2007-03-06, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
> Dennis Ferguson wrote:
>> On 2007-03-06, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>>> Darth Jeff wrote:
>>>> 1. Does the claim that Verizon has superior coverage include AMPs?
>>> It's unclear if Verizon's claim of "Most Reliable Network" includes
>>> AMPS, but since they started making that claim back when most of their
>>> handsets were tri-mode, I would think that it does.
>>
>> I don't believe that, in the Bay area at least. I've yet to be anywhere
>> in the Bay area which had *Verizon* AMPS coverage but which lacked
>> Verizon CDMA coverage. It may be I've not been everywhere yet, but
>> I've been a lot of places so areas where Verizon has AMPS but hasn't
>> added CDMA must be fairly rare.
>
> I could give you a list of a lot of places! Parts of Mount Tam, parts of
> Big Basin, parts of Tilden park, parts of Forest of Nisene Marks state
> park, areas north of Pescadero on Pescadero Road in San Mateo County,
> much of Old La Honda Road, actually quite a bit of rural San Mateo County.

I haven't been to Mount Tam for a long time, and it was all roaming
when I had a Sprint phone. For the Santa Cruz mountain bits, however,
the Verizon coverage map agrees with me, not you. For AC2 the Verizon
coverage map shows no AMPS-only coverage anywhere around the big white spot
including 94020; I have personal experience that a Verizon phone on the
AC2 plan gets no AMPS coverage there either, even though I can use Verizon
AMPS anywhere it is available (tested by forcing the phone to analog
since there's always CDMA). This area only shows roaming coverage under
AC1, or on the Sprint map, and my Sprint phone did indeed get service
in there. That is because the AMPS towers are Cingular, not Verizon.
And if your phone is such that you are mistaking this for Verizon AMPS
I'm not sure I can trust your evaluation of the other spots you mention.

I have a friend who lives in La Honda who was an AT&T customer for
a long time, and who now has Sprint service for the above reason. If there
are people in the Santa Cruz mountains who prefer Verizon they must
live further south, closer to Highway 9, where Verizon does have coverage.

Dennis Ferguson